Four Life Altering Words
by phoebe9509
Summary: Emily goes to the Hotchner house for dinner and Jack has a surprise for her


"Daddy, daddy!" Jack yelled as he raced into the living room and jumped on his father's lap.

"What's wrong Jack? Are you okay?"

The little boy nodded his head quickly. "Is Emmy still coming over?"

Hotch tried to hide a smile. His son was infatuated with one Miss Emily Prentiss and he couldn't blame him. "Yes Jack, she's still coming over for dinner."

The little boy happily bounced in his father's lap. "Yay! I have a surprise for her," he whispered into his father's ear.

"You do huh? And what would that surprise be?"

Jack looked at his father with a look of shock on his face. "I can't tell you that daddy. If I told you, you would tell Emmy and it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?"

Hotch chuckled. "I guess not. Sorry I asked. Well I'm going to go finish cooking dinner so it's ready when Emily gets here, so why don't you go play."

Jack let out a loud sigh. "I can't play! I have to get ready!" The little boy jumped up from his father's lap and ran halfway to his room then turned back. "Do you think she'll like my surprise?" he asked suddenly unsure of what her response would be.

"Jack, you should know by now that Emily would love anything you did for her. Especially a surprise." This caused his son to beam. He nodded his head then raced to his room, slamming the door shut behind him. "Wonder what that's about," Hotch said to himself.

He went to the kitchen to check on the chicken he had shoved in the oven. He just started to make the salad when there was a knock on the door. Hotch threw his towel over his shoulder and opened the door and was shocked to see a very dressed up woman standing before him.

"Wow! Prentiss you look amazing. What's the occasion?"

Emily blushed at his words. "Oh, well actually Jack called me and left a message saying I _HAD_ to look nice tonight. Dress, makeup, curly hair, the whole nine yards. You don't know about this?" she questioned him.

"No," he shook his head. "He just told me he had a surprise for you about ten minutes ago, but he wouldn't tell me what. But he'll be happy to see you. Come on in." he opened the door wider and let her pass him. She put her bag on the table and turned to look at him.

"Do you need any help?"

"I'm just finishing the salad, and we'll be ready to eat, and besides I don't want to mess up your outfit," he smirked.

"Yes, we wouldn't want that," she agreed. "Your son might kill me," she laughed.

"He adores you too much to ever hurt you Prentiss."

Emily smiled as she smoothed her pretty red dress out. "Well at least the feelings mutual."

Emily helped set the table and Hotch and Prentiss sat down and called Jack for dinner. The two older profilers were lightly flirting when Jack appeared out of his room wearing a suit. "Good evening Miss Emmy."

Emily looked over at the younger Hotchner and a huge smile broke out across her face. "Well good evening Mr. Jack. You look very nice. Do you have a date?" she chuckled.

Jack pulled his hand from behind his back and handed her a flower he made out of paper. "I was hoping you were my date."

Emily took the flower from his small hand and sniffed it. "My favorite," she said as she played along.

Jack straightened his clip on tie before taking his seat next to Emily. "Has daddy told you how beautiful you look tonight?" Jack blushed as he spoke.

"Well he told me I looked amazing but you were the first Hotchner to say I was beautiful," she said to Jack and she ran a hand through his hair.

"Well you are."

"Thanks Jack." Emily looked up and saw Hotch sitting there with his mouth hanging open. She held in a chuckle. Hotch couldn't believe his son was hitting on Emily. He was hitting on _HIS_ Emily. He knew his son liked Prentiss, but he didn't think he liked her that much, and by the look on Emily's face she was enjoying this.

The three of them ate dinner while making small talk. Jack told them both about things that were happening at school but Hotch noticed that he was mainly talking to Emily. He felt a little left out, his son was practically on a date with the woman of his dreams.

After dinner Emily helped Hotch clean up and the trio sat in the living room where Jack was watching Tom and Jerry. The two adults held conversations with each other as Jack was preoccupied, but once Emily uttered the words, "It's been fun, but I better get going," Jack was back by her side.

He held her hand. "You can't go yet Emmy."

She gave him a quizzical look. "Why not honey?"

"Because I have a question to ask you. It's a surprise."

"Oh," she shot Hotch a look. "I thought dinner was the surprise."

Jack shook his head. "No silly. I'll be right back." He ran off to his room.

"Is it just me or is he acting weird tonight?" Emily asked with a laugh.

"He's acting weird. I'm kind of scared of what he's going to do next. I mean he called you and told you to dress up then he walked out of his room in a suit and he flirted all through dinner!"

Emily leaned back against the couch and relaxed against Hotch. Their arms and legs were touching. "And you had no idea?" she whispered not wanting Jack to overhear.

"I had no clue!"

Just as he said that Jack came back into the living room and stood in front of Emily. "I need to ask you something Miss Emmy."

"Of course Jack, you can ask me anything."

The young boy smiled. "Good, I was hoping you'd say that." He pulled out a box from his pocket and handed it to her. He then knelt down on one knee just like he's seen in the movies and he heard his father and Emily gasp.

"Miss Emmy Prentiss. Will you do me the honor of being my wife? Will you marry me?"

Emily sat there shocked for a few seconds. She opened the box he had handed her and inside was a 25 cent ring from the machines at the stores. She didn't know what to say. She'd never been proposed to before and now a five year old was doing it. And he looked so adorable on one knee waiting patiently for her answer.

Hotch cleared his throat and that brought her back to reality. "Jack, the ring is beautiful…I don't know what to say," she paused.

"You could say yes," Jack told her.

"I would love to Jack. I really would, but we'd have to wait to get married. You'll have to turn 18 first."

Jack nodded. "I know and I'm willing to wait as long as you are. You make me happy Emmy and I love you."

"Aww, Jack I love you too." Emily decided to play along. "Of course I'll marry you Jack!"

Jack jumped up and into her lap. He threw his arms around her neck and kissed her cheek. "I'm gonna go draw a picture of this. I'll see you later Emmy. Oh and I love you," he added as he got off of her lap and ran to his room.

Emily took out the ring and put it on her pinky finger.

"You do realize you just agreed to marry a five year old? My son?" Hotch said from his seat beside her.

She looked up at him. "I do realize that, and what can I say? He's a catch. Besides, that's probably the only marriage proposal I'll ever get so I had to say yes!" Emily saw Hotch's eyes and noticed something different about them. She placed her hand on his arm. "Are you okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just realized that my son has more guts than I do," he mumbled softly.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"He is infatuated with you Emily. You are all he talks about. When are you coming over? When does he get to see you next? Are you coming to the park with us? He loves you Emily…deeply, and he's five and he just proposed, and the sad thing about all this is that I love you too, but I don't have enough courage to tell you or to do all this for you."

Emily smiled brightly. "You don't have to do all this for me Hotch. You just told me you loved me. I don't need anything else. I have the love of two Hotchner men and I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world." She leaned in closer to him.

"Does that mean—"

"It means Aaron Hotchner that I love you too," she whispered as her lips grazed his. He let out a gasp and Emily closed the gap between them. His hands found her hair. He always wanted to wrap his hands in the raven silkiness, but he never thought he would. The kiss was sweet and simple. They pulled away and Emily licked her lips.

"I better get going. I mean I'm already cheating on my fiancée with his father. Sounds like a bad soap opera," she giggled.

"Yeah, Jack can't find out or else he might kill us both." They got up from the couch and headed for the door hand in hand. She grabbed her purse then stood on her tip toes to kiss him again.

"Good night Aaron Hotchner," she smiled.

"Good night Emily." She turned to leave then turned back and threw her arms around his neck for another kiss.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she added as she released him and he watched her hips sway as she walked away.

Jack just made him realize that he couldn't live without that woman! And Jack just made him realize he wasn't going to. He had the love of one Miss Emily Prentiss and the love of a son that meant the world to him, and to Hotch, that was all he needed to survive.


End file.
